Common Sense Homesteading is another fabulous blog:) Laurie shares about a variety of topics, including self sufficiency, homesteading, herbals, wonderful recipes, natural health and an array of other lovelies

Born in the Wrong Century rather says it all doesn’t it? Nichole has some really unique and great recipes in her index and her to make list!

I found these labels in one of the local stores, and I am in love! Always such a hassle to remove old labels when reusing jars. Now, simply wash away the old with water!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

I took time to stretch out on the sofa recently, and soon found myself covered in kittens. (The white kitty is our oldest cat, Rose Marie). Mama Peppermint came into the room and was rather frantically calling out, looking for them, so I called her over….

She jumped up and immediately lay down for them to nurse…

and received a well deserved wash up from Earl Jr. afterwards..

And yes, we still have all the kittens! They are nearing 5 months old so I have a feeling they are staying right where they are, in our home, with their mother who still will search them out to snuggle and nurse them. I see everyday how much she loves her babies, and have no desire to separate them. If karma chooses someday to send a special person my way, who wants and needs a cat, I might consider letting one go to a new home, but not now, no way will I break up this family. When I found Peppermint, part of her healing was a promise, a promise to keep her safe and happy for all time, and that included her unborn babies.

Hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xxx

Our Cloudpaw, is still having issues with his leg injuries, but we are improving! A post about his herbal journey soon!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I just love it when I find an herbal book at a flea market, used book store or other spot, and it turns out to be a treasure. So it is with a recent find, The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices by Sarah Garland. This book is just full of useful recipes for using herbs and spices in cooking, cosmetics, soaps, herbal remedies, dyeing and much more. There are lovely botanical watercolors and photographs throughout with wonderful diagrams also. The history and traditions section and the monographs are very good also.

Lily and I decided to try this nice recipe for making Horehound toffee, from the book. We really like it and think you will also:)

Horehound Toffee

3 sprigs of horehound (ours has already been harvested and dried so we decided to use 2 tablespoons to make it nice and strong with the medicinal qualities so we can use our candy as cough helpers also)

2/3 cups soft brown sugar

2 tablespoons of molasses

the juice of 1/2 orange

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Pour 1 1/4 cups boiling water over the horehound and leave to infuse for 30 minutes

Strain, pressing to extract the juice. Pour the liquid into a heavy pan and add the remaining ingredients.

the instructions then say to mark out squares with the tip of a sharp knife. When it is cool and brittle, break it and store in an airtight container. We didn’t have the best of luck scoring it, so we just cut it up rather randomly with scissors before it was brittle, then tossed powdered sugar over them:) YUM, good medicine that tastes good too!

Monday, October 10, 2011

My little man, Dylan, has started Little Learners preschool program, which lasts 2 1/2 each morning during the week. We are getting in to quite the ritual of going to the woods near his school, when I pick him up. Luckily, we never get lost as he carries his compass with him and consults it often

He likes to also carry his whistle, and walkie talkie headset, just in case you know

As we were watching the leaves the other day, Dylan looked at a tree quite bare of leaves, got an impish look on his face, and declared “Nakey trees!”:) I love the way he is being able to identify some of the leaves these days. And he asks constantly for the names of ones he doesn’t know. I got a real thrill the other day when he found a white aster, and looked at me as if to answer his own question when he said/asked, “this isn’t chickweed is it Grandma?” No sweetheart, that is an aster:) You see Dylan has his own chickweed garden at home and he loves to happily munch it all the time